Africa Great Lakes Democracy Watch

Welcome toAfrica Great Lakes Democracy Watch Blog.Our objective is to promote the institutions of democracy,social justice,Human Rights,Peace, Freedom ofExpression, and Respect to humanity in Rwanda,Uganda,DR Congo, Burundi,Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya,Ethiopia, and Somalia. We strongly believe that Africa will develop if only our presidents stop being rulers of men and become leaders of citizens. We support Breaking the Silence Campaign for DR Congo since we believe the democracy in Rwanda means peace inDRC. Follow this link to learn more about the origin of the war in both Rwanda and DR Congo:http://www.rwandadocumentsproject.net/gsdl/cgi-bin/library

Thursday, June 21, 2012

RWANDA-USA:End the Impunity in Eastern Congo: Hold US Ally to Account

The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DR
Congo (MONUSCO ) recently revealed that the Rwandan government has a
hand in the current instability in eastern Congo by giving support to
the rebel groups National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP)
and/or M23. This does not come as news to those who follow Congolese
politics. Since 1996, the Rwandan government has acted as a major
destabilizing force in the east of the Congo. Myriad studies and reports
have documented how the Rwandan government has waged proxy wars through
rebel groups, pilfering of Congo's resources and trading in hundreds of millions of dollars of conflict minerals.

The report by MONUSCO is not surprising, but the carte blanche that
the Rwandan government enjoys, especially at the international level,
continues to boggle the mind. It would appear that the more Rwanda
destabilizes the Congo, the more military equipment, training,
intelligence and financial aid the government gets from its donors in
the West. Timothy Reid's prescient article in the Harvard Policy Journal entitled "Killing
Them Softly: Has Foreign Aid to Rwanda and Uganda Contributed to the
Humanitarian Tragedy in the Democratic Republic of Congo?" captures
the scale of the impunity with which the Rwandan government has
operated in Congo with the full backing of its donors.

The United States has a law on its books that supporters of the
Rwandan government both inside and outside the US government would wish
to disappear. The Democratic Republic of The Congo Relief, Security and Democracy Promotion Act (PL 109-456),
sponsored by Barack Obama and Co-Sponsored by Hillary Clinton when they
were both Senators, was signed into law in 2006 by President Bush.

Section 105 of Public Law 109-456 says "The Secretary of State is
authorized to withhold assistance made available under the Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.), other than
humanitarian, peacekeeping, and counterterrorism assistance, for a
foreign country if the Secretary determines that the government of the
foreign country is taking actions to destabilize the Democratic Republic
of the Congo."

Following a United Nations group of experts report published in 2008
documenting Rwanda's support for the CNDP and its leader at the time,
Laurent Nkunda, Sweden and Netherlands did what the United States has
not done to date; they held the Rwandan government to account by withholding financial aid.
Subsequently, Rwanda demobilized the CNDP and placed Laurent Nkunda
under house arrest only to replace him with Bosco Ntaganda as head of
the CNDP. Now that Ntaganda has become toxic as a result of increasing
demands that he should be brought to the International Criminal Court
(ICC) where he is wanted for war crimes in the Congo, there is now an
attempt to replace him with Sultani Makenga. Noted scholar of the region
Rene LeMarchand stated in the Fall/Winter 2009,Brown Journal of World Affairs that Rwanda is a central actor who will determine whether the region is characterized by peace or war.

Allowing more to die and add to the millions of Congolese already lost
to the war and instability of the last fifteen years is unconscionable.
It is time that the international community and Rwanda's allies,
especially the United States, hold the Rwandan government to account. A
good start would be to implement Section 105 of PL 109-456.

Contact
the U.S. State Department, The White House and members of Congress and
request that they hold the Rwandan government accountable for its
actions in the Congo.
Select Resources that document the Rwandan government's destabilizing role in the Congo